Immediately upon your reply my friend Mr. T. B. Fitzpatrick will wait upon you and arrange the details. I name Major Thos. C. Yancey of Virginia as my second in the field.
I have the honor to remain
Your obedient servant,
GEORGE FAIRFAX CARTER, Late Colonel C. S. A.
"Suffering Moses!" cried out Fitz. "You are not going to send that?"
"It is sent, my dear Fitz. Mailed from my office this afternoon. This is a copy." Fitz sank into a chair with both hands to his head.
"My object in sendin' for you both," the colonel continued, "was to be fully prepared should my antagonist select some early hour in the mornin'. In that case, Fitz, I shall have to rely on you alone, as Major Yancey cannot reach here until the followin' day. That was why a prudent doctor might be necessary at once."
Fitz's only reply was to thump his own head, as if the situation was too overpowering for words.
The colonel, with the same deliberation, opened the second letter. It was addressed to Judge Kerfoot, informing him of the nature of the "crisis," and notifying him of his (the colonel's) intention to appoint him sole executor of his estate should fate provide that vacancy.
The third was a telegram to Major Yancey summoning him at once "to duty on the field in an affair of honor."
"I am aware, Fitz, that some secrecy must be preserved in an affair of this kind Nawth—quite diffe'ent from our own county, and"—
"Secrecy! Secrecy! With that bellowing Klutchem? Don't you know that that idiot will have it all over the Street by nine o'clock to-morrow, unless he is ass enough to get scared, get out a warrant, and clap you into the Tombs before breakfast? O Colonel! How could you do a thing like this without letting us know?"